UPDATE: Serial rapist OK’d for release in Lake Los Angeles

A Santa Clara County judge on Friday OK’d north Los Angeles County as a place to release a serial rapist who has been confined to a state hospital nearly 20 years after attacking women some 40 times.

Judge Gilbert Brown made the announcement Friday and scheduled a hearing in 45 days. The rapist, Christopher Evans Hubbart, 62, could be out in December, officials say.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey fought to block the release of Hubbart in Los Angeles County, where he grew up. She announced Friday her office will be the point of contact for written comments from county residents about Hubbart’s release.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said he would call on the Board of Supervisors to challenge Hubbart’s release in Los Angeles County during Tuesday’s board meeting.

“It is an outrage that an admitted sexual predator with a long history of brutal crimes against women be released in this community — or any community,” Antonovich said. “He belongs in an institution where he cannot prey upon the public.”

The judge said Hubbart, who admitted raping approximately 40 women between 1971 and 1982, will tentatively be housed at a residence at 17132 Laredo Vista in Lake Los Angeles, a small community about 20 miles east of Palmdale.

Born in Pasadena, Hubbart was arrested in a series of sexual assaults in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties in 1972. He reportedly entered women’s houses, tied their hands and raped them.

He admitted 20 rapes and was committed to Atascadero State Hospital, was released in 1979 and moved to Northern California, where he was convicted to sexually assaulting 23 more women.

Released on parole in April 1990, he assaulted at least two more victims in San Jose.

Hubbart went back to a state hospital. But now Santa Clara County prosecutors say he’s ready for release under tight supervision.

Lacey sought to have him released in Santa Clara County, but the judge ruled otherwise on Friday.

The public has until Nov. 29 to submit written comments to Judge Brown by emailing the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office at HubbartLASafetyTaskForce@da.lacounty.gov or by writing to: